First time I ever went my daughter said “Dad why don’t you have tattoos like all the other Dads?” 
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I’m not opposed to them but i’d only get one if I was in a gang or the army.
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I’m hoping that’s not a ‘self portrait’. If it is he might want to seek medical attention.
You can get them lasered off it it’s really an issue. Or, you know, just view it as part of your life and accept it no matter what…
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There are occasional aesthetic differences on the beach. Spanish tats are elaborate, abstract designs whereas the English are just the three lions on someone’s calf
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Cliche that. Sorry.
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Yeah. I might look into it again lol. I’m weak.
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I’m currently at one just outside Amsterdam. Tat-central.
Fair play to you @joeblackcircles 
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Casual stereotypes aside, with Jolyon on this. I don’t really get the whole culture but horses, courses etc
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The interesting thing about them is they seem to have a “once you pop, you can’t stop” tendency. For most people, it seems that either you don’t have them, or you can’t stop getting them. Not to make a judgment - whatever floats your boat - but it is interesting.
Every once in a while I see one that is so well-thought and artistic, it’s stunning. In college there was a cute barista who had the Lamplighter scene from The Little Prince across her freckly shoulders and it was so beautiful and subtle, it remains for me a high mark of tattoos I’ve seen.
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Yeah what a joker!
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There was a bloke in Nottingham who dressed as joker & scared people
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I wanted a tattoo for decades, but only got round to getting one in my mid-40s, somewhere in the midst of one of my more recent mid-life crises. Yes, they are ubiquitous and utterly cliched, but I love mine.
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My relationship with tattoos/body modification is quite complicated. I was fascinated by them as a child and was desperate to have my ear pierced even at primary school in the 80’s. It was totally forbidden by my parents and the idea of a tattoo would’ve been unthinkable. I managed to break every other rule and got into trouble constantly but I never got my ear pierced and i’ve never got a tattoo. I don’t know why.
Most of my freinds, male and female have tattoos of varying quality and meaning and it doesn’t make me think any less of them. I don’t talk to them about them and I suppose that shows a level of ambivalence.
What is interesting to me is now with a son and daughter (15 and 17) I’m having to readdress my attitude towards markings on their bodies. Sadly, some of these marks are evidence of mental anguish, either cutting, picking or branding along with small, experimental inking. I just can’t engage with it and I feel a failure because of that.
My son had his ear pierced last week. I felt fine about that, when I told my dad he asked if i felt disappointed which probably explains a lot about the inherited attitude I seem to be carrying.
I’ve just got to accept it as it’s clear that my daughter will be smothered with them at the earliest opportunity. I just don’t know why it bothers me so much.
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How many have you had (mid life crises rather than tats). I think I’ve been having one for at least a decade, or maybe that’s just life as it is after the age of 40!
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Hard to say, they blur into each other a bit.
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I feel seen.
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i also go through life untatted. no big moral feelings about it, and there were a couple of designs i was going to apply like 25 years ago, but i never went through with it and assuming that the artist wouldn’t have completely fucked up my idea, i’d still be fine with them. i think i may have been to lazy to get tattooed. or, whenever i had the money, i’d buy records instead.
the wife likes them, she’s got four. my ex has “punk as fuck” tattooed on the inside of her lower lip. i guess she kind of is.
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